Surfacing
by Mind Astray
Summary: All that mattered to her in the last hours of the planet's life was a man lying on the beach with none left in him.
1. Breach

_A/N: Hi there. Well here I go trying again. This is a two part piece, I decided to post the first part now so that I could get myself motivated and focus on one thing at a time. Still baby steps, working my way there. I promise the second part shall come very very soon. I'm not planning on allowing anymore long delays from my insecurities. Thanks so much to everyone for their support. This idea was spurned from my forum lurking where I learned that they considered a scene after the lifestream event in which Tifa performs CPR on Cloud. Can't remember if this was in an interview or one of the ultimanias or the reunion files. If anyone knows, lemme know and I'll fix this. =) Anyway no doubt it was just another little mini game with button sequences. But I found the thought endearing nonetheless. More angsty and drawn out than it would have been in the game. But what can I say? I'm a sucker for angsty and drawn out. As I said this is two part, because I got wordy and there's a flashback sequence so I figured I would split it. Thanks for reading, comments are indeed most welcome. I have gotten miles behind on my reviewing and I sincerely apologize, I'm going to catch things though up I swear! I have been in a permanent lag lately. Anyway enough of my babbling....._

Characters not mine. Copyright Square-Enix and all that jazz. Timeline takes place after Mideel and the lifestream sequence.

Rated M for language and violence.

* * *

**Surfacing**

He stared at her through the tendrils of emerald mists with eyes that she finally, _finally_ recognized. And it was all she could do to keep the welled up tears from escaping her own. They had worked so hard stitching him together piece by piece. Now the boy she remembered stood before her with his small, shy smile. Jenova had lost her hold. Now the puppet could curl his fist around the strings that held him so tightly and burn them away like whispered embers in the night.

Cloud Strife was free.

"Come on Tifa," he said as he outstretched his hand towards her. "Lets go home."

She smiled as she took his hand and they ascended. The lifestream propelling them upward at an ever increasing speed. The monochromatic world around them swirled away beneath their feet. The voices, the souls were still screaming, flooding her mind with words and images that were not her own. The assault they purged on the senses was maddening. Tortuous wails seared into her psyche, scalding every last nerve until her entire body felt bloodied and raw. It was their way of crying out to the living, to grasp onto them with gnarled fingers until they heard every last word, felt every last pain. It was the roar of the planet consuming the souls it held.

It was only when they hit the liquid barrier did she realize that she had been screaming herself. She choked and struggled as the thick fluid began to fill her lungs. Beneath the panic she realized that the force of the impact had caused their hands to separate. She flailed her arms in a vain attempt to find some part of him to grab on to in the endless green.

She came up empty.

The surface spun above her as she struggled to break through. She thought she could see the stars in the night sky over Nibelheim shimmering in passive indifference to their plight. And despite herself she found that she was still reaching for them. That was when her vision began tunneling, and everything went black.

And oh so thankfully silent.

The next thing Tifa Lockhart became aware of were hands. She could feel them, ghosting their fingers over her skin. Through the darkness she could hear more voices, distant and different from the ones in the lifestream. Screaming, yet familiar. The remedial warmth of magic washed over her as she fought her way back to consciousness. There was a bright flash of light and her eyes snapped open. The first thing to register in her mind was the hot and burning sphere looming above her, setting the sky on fire with brilliant shades of orange and red, eclipsing the normally blue hue of the atmosphere.

Meteor was still closing in on the planet.

Her lungs seized painfully in her chest as they tried to desperately take in air. A strangled gasp escaped her lips before she turned and wretched violently against the earth. The dense ooze poured from her mouth and splattered the ground as she heaved. When the last of it cleared her throat she automatically forced the air in and out of her oxygen starved body with loud, labored breaths. Tifa fell weakly over on her back, fighting to keep her eyes open.

"C'mon now, you can do it," a deep voice boomed above her. She looked feebly for its source before succumbing to violent fits of coughing as more of the lifestream demanded to be freed from her body. She rolled her head to the side to spit the contents on the ground only to meet Barret Wallace's terrified gaze.

"That's it Tifa, get that nasty shit outta you."

"Barret?" she rasped. Her voice sounding hollow and far away.

"I'm here. We're all here," he said softly, placing his large hand on her shoulder. "It's gonna be alright."

"Tifa!!" Someone else wailed her name and she turned to see Yuffie barreling toward her, falling and skidding on her knees to a stop beside her. The young ninja grabbed her hand and clasped it between her own. Her face was streaked red with tears that continued to fall. "Oh thank the gods!"

"Yuffie..." she whispered, flexing her fingers in an attempt to reassure the distraught girl.

"How is he?" Barret's voice wavered

Yuffie didn't speak. She glanced over her shoulder before returning his gaze with a sorrowful look and shook her head. Tifa's hand quaked in her grasp as the girl pulled it to her and broke down in a fit of sobs.

"Who?" the martial artist asked weakly.

She looked back and forth between the two of them but received no answer. They merely stared at her with a mixture of hesitation and horror.

"_Who?"_ Tifa tried again. She didn't like the way they were looking at her. It was the same look that her father gave her that day she came home from school and asked where her mother was...

_Oh God._

The blood in her veins suddenly turned to ice as the realization hit her.

"Where's Cloud?" The young woman's voice suddenly more forceful as her eyes rolled around in panic.

"It's okay, Tifa. Cid and Vincent are workin' on him."

His lips moved but she couldn't make out what he was saying . She could barely hear anything now over the loud thrumming of her heart. Each beat sending white hot pain radiating through her skull. The adrenaline was now surging through her body as she wrenched her hand away from Yuffie. She twisted and strained weak muscles until she was on her knees. Her vision spun and she nearly fell backwards. Barret caught her in his arms and tried to steady her swaying form.

"Whoa, hold on now!" He tried to settle her back to the ground. She wouldn't have it though, the urgency in her growing and she fought back against his grasp.

"Take it easy! You're in no shape to be movin' around!" he hollered as she broke free from him. Tifa stumbled and staggered on to her feet. Her body pitching and reeling as she made her way towards the pilot and the ex-turk.

"Tifa! Wait!" Yuffie scrambled after her.

"Cloud!" she cried out, her voice hoarse and raw. The green liquid snaked down the length of her legs, pooling on the sand with each driven step she took. Cid turned upon hearing her voice and quickly rushed to meet her.

"Hang on girl!" He grabbed her by the arm and shook his head. "There's no need to go over there."

She didn't look at him, she didn't even feel his rough hand against her skin. The only recognition she gave was when his strength proved enough to slow her advance. "Let me go."

"Tifa he's..."

She wouldn't let him finish.

"Let...me..._go!" _Her eyes flashed dangerously at him as she tried to tear away from his grip. A pale glow illuminated ruby irises, causing the older man to wince. Begrudgingly he loosened his hold, partially from the sight of fierce determination, and partially because he could see that she was suffering from the same sickness Cloud had been.

Yet somehow, she was still on her feet.

"Shit Barret! She's got mako poisoning!"

"You must be a goddamned genius Cid!" Barret bellowed. "How ya suppose she got that after marinating in that shit for who the hell knows how long?"

"Hey! Don't you fucking talk to me like that! I'm saying that we need to get her to a doctor you hulking dipshit!" He flicked his cigarette angrily to the ground. "Unless you know how to treat it? Oh but of course you do...Corel's just full of brilliant doctors who plink their pick axes on rocks for a living right?"

"Now look here you piss poor excuse for a pilot! You couldn't navigate the head out of your ass if..."

"Will you two geezers just stop?! Cloud's dead! He's _dead_ and you guys can't be bothered to take a moment to show some fucking respect!"

"Respect? Do you even know what respect _is_ you materia stealin' little pest? "

"Oh you want to have a go at me old man? C'mon lets do it then! I'll wipe the floor with your wrinkled old ass!"

In another time she would have been the one to step in to calm their misguided anger. To lay hands on them and promise them everything would be alright. To hold them in their grief, comfort them in their confusion. That had been her purpose up until this point. They were exhausted and lashing out at each other because they had nowhere else to focus their anger. Without someone to lead them, their group would unravel as quickly as it had been threaded together.

Right now however none of them mattered. Nothing they said, nothing they did. She didn't hear their raised voices, the bickering faded in the distance. All that mattered to her in the last hours of the planet's life was a man lying on the beach with none left in him. She could be as selfish as any of them.

Tifa crawled over the splintered remnants of a dock to see Vincent crouching above a prone figure with a familiar pair of boots sprawled on the sand. She could see Nanaki with him, his fiery tail waving like a distress signal in the air as he watched anxiously. Her legs buckled and she fell to her knees beside the cloaked man as he cast another restore materia. The green light blinding her briefly before her vision refocused. Cloud lay in front of her washed in the warm glow that faded slowly as the healing powers dissolved beneath his soaked clothes.

What remained once it had vanished was sickly pale skin radiating with lifestream. Half lidded eyes that stared vacantly towards the heavens beyond the planet. Blue lips that were parted enough for his teeth to capture the glint of the flaming chaos in the skies above them. She held her breath and waited. There was no response.

"There's nothing else I can do," Vincent said as he came to his feet. He clasped her shoulder for a moment before turning away. Nanaki lowered his great head and touched the side of Cloud's face with his nose. A low moan rose from his throat and he closed his eyes.

"I am so sorry Tifa." he said softly, looking up at her. He paused for a moment before echoing the words she had given him. "Be strong."

And that was it. They were really giving up on him. It wasn't all that surprising. They had watched the man unravel and descend into madness. The last time they had seen him he was nearly comatose and babbling incoherently in a wheelchair. Hell, before that they had watched him nearly kill Aerith and then seal the fate of the planet by handing her murderer the Black Materia. She could understand their hesitance.

But for the life of her she could not understand her own as she sat there numbly. Looking at him like at any moment his chest would heave and those bright eyes would refocus, their inner fire returning. He'd look at her and she could tell him that they made it. She could watch those lips form into that beautiful smile he'd kept hidden from all of them. She was not letting go. Not now. Not when everything was just beginning make sense.

"Cloud..."

Tifa brushed a lock of hair away from his face, feeling the waxen texture of his skin beneath her fingertips. She put a hand to his forehead, gently shifting his head back. It obeyed listlessly beneath her touch as trembling fingers tilted his chin. Leaning in closer to him she marveled for half a second at the peace that adorned his usually troubled features. It was then, lingering in that small space between their lips that she found her voice, and screamed.

"Breathe!"

Pinching his nose roughly between her thumb and forefinger she covered his mouth with her own, and forced her breath into his lungs.

The hesitations fell away as she ripped his cable knit shirt down the middle and placed the heel of her hand against his chest. She straightened her shoulders and interlocked her fingers before she began counting as she thrust her weight against his sternum in quick successive motions.

"You're not going to do this. You didn't make it this far to die on this damned beach! Do you hear me?"

His head lolled side to side from the force of her compressions like he was giving her an answer. Though his eyes still stared past her into nothing. This was her Cloud from Nibelheim. Always somewhere far away, and as stubborn as the day was long.

"Breathe you thickheaded son of a bitch!" she cried before filling his lungs with air a second time. "I'm not going to ask you again!" The anger rose with every push of her hands against his chest, every breath she drove into his body. It also had something to do with that constant hum in her ears that kept growing louder with each passing second.

It reminded her of the cicadas seething in the forests below Nibelheim. Masked and subtle, yet quick to intensify as more joined their chorus, then it became almost deafening. As a child she became convinced that if she listened to them long enough it would drive her mad. Something her father had dismissed as nonsense. But as the buzzing began growing in intensity, she began to consider that maybe he hadn't known everything.

She tried to drown them out with her own voice. They were starting to make her lose count.

"Cloud, do you remember when you saved that little girl in Junon? You told the man on the beach you didn't know how to do this."

His chest rose as she breathed into him again.

"I could have...maybe I should have helped her. But...I didn't. I was still trying to figure you out. I wondered if you remembered that day. The one before you asked me to meet you at the well. I was trying to learn CPR from that old manual. And you volunteered to help me."

Tifa shook her head as she thought of the look he had given her all those years ago.

"No that's not right. I volunteered you didn't I?"

She paused long enough to let him answer, even though she knew he wouldn't.

"It was a silly memory to hold on to I guess. But that was the first time I'd ever gotten that close to you," she forced a laugh through her gritted teeth. "We were both scared to death weren't we? I thought if you remembered any of it, then I'd just know it was you. I wouldn't have had any more doubts."

His head continued to nod back and forth.

"I know, that was stupid of me. I should've just asked you. But you saved her anyway right? You didn't give up. Well I'm not giving up either. Because you're not supposed to quit. You don't quit until..."

Her next words were cut off by her own scream. Her hands darted reflexively to her ears and she doubled over in pain as the chorused humming reached its crescendo. She could feel the cicadas crawling beneath her scalp, fluttering their veined wings before burrowing deep into her skull.

"Get out!" the fighter cried, clawing at her skin and wrenching handfuls of hair from her head.

"_Get out," t_hey echoed back to her in her own voice. Low and sneering and dripping with malice. And to her horror she realized they weren't cicadas at all. They were the voices from the lifestream.

"Stop it!" She broke into sobs. "Why are you doing this? We haven't done anything to you!"

"_Liar."_

"It's not our fault. It's not _his_ fault."

"_Tifa Lockhart is a liar," _they hummed in unison like bullying children.

"He couldn't control himself, he just forgot who he was that's all...I forgot too. Give us a chance to make this right!"

"_Too late."_

"No." She shook her head before thrusting her hands against his chest with renewed vigor. "I won't let you take him!"

"_How many lives have you taken?"_

"Please..."

"_What's one more?"_

Images flashed through her mind of crumbling plates, burning homes, and twisted charred bodies. Mouths agape, faces staring up at her. Some she knew, most she didn't. They faded and she saw her dearest friend with her hands clasped together kneeling on the other side of Cloud. Emerald eyes looked at her as she tried to speak, tried to scream but she couldn't do either because she was choking. Suffocating on the thick liquid of her own lifeblood as it erupted from her mouth in waves, spilling down her throat, consuming all her bright and cheerful colors in dark crimson gore.

Tifa shut her eyes tightly from the image and forced her breath past Cloud's lips once more. She jabbed her fingers to his neck feeling for a pulse she knew wasn't there. It didn't matter, because she wasn't stopping. She had to focus. She couldn't save him if she couldn't focus.

"_Just look at you."_

That voice was enough to make her own heart stop beating.

"_Can't save anyone, can you?"_

"No, no, no, no, no," the young woman whispered over and over as she shut her eyes tighter, using all of the strength she had left to keep from looking.

"_Pathetic. Can't even save that bastard runt from next door."_

It didn't work.

"Papa..." she whimpered to the man now standing across from her. She couldn't meet his eyes, only stare at that bloody, gaping hole of torn tissue left by Sephiroth's blade.

"_You should have died that day with the rest of us."_

Tifa felt searing pain as the scar on her chest split. She could hear the audible crack of her sternum and ribs as the masume sliced through her, tearing into the vital organs beneath. The breath hitched in her throat and all she wanted to do in that moment was curl up and die like she was supposed to all those years ago.

It burned. Oh god it_ **burned**_.

"_Don't give up, Tifa," _another familiar voice whispered. It was calm and even and she recognized it as immediately as she had the last.

"Cloud..."

She returned her gaze to his distant, unresponsive stare. His voice changed pitch, softening to that unsteady tone that lied somewhere between a boy and a man. She suddenly remembered it so well.

"_Don't listen to them. You can do anything you want, long as you keep trying."_

She managed a smile despite the ache lingering in her chest. All of the mako induced illusions faded, and she was left with the confidence he had in her and the task at hand. His words surged hope through her exhausted body.

"_I know you could save me if you had to, I don't doubt that for a second. Because you don't quit. I've never seen you give up on anything."_

"I'm not giving up."

"_You don't quit, right Tifa?"_

"That's right."

The humming cicadas returned, and she found herself staring into the bright blue eyes of the boy who's memory had got her through so many obstacles in her life. The beach ebbed away into the rolling meadows and forests of Nibelheim. His features shifted and he gave her a wry smile as his unruly hair waved like the tall grass caught in the winds coming down the mountain.

"_You don't quit until you're sure."_

"I'm not sure Cloud," Tifa responded softly before reinforcing her words with a loud, unwavering demand.

"Now breathe!"


	2. Bend

A/N: Hello again. Sorry for the delay, had to deal with a bout of sinusitis and a bad reaction to medication. And also I'm a dirty liar as I said this would be two part. Well it actually went on longer than I anticipated and there was such a contrast between this flashback and the angst of the present that its going to be three parts. Three, and I promise no more! There are many parallels sprinkled throughout. The last arch will be ready soon. Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments, and thanks for reading!

* * *

_The bright August sun moved high overhead, orbiting the planet until it was able to peek beneath the brim of 13-year-old Tifa Lockhart's woven sun hat . She sighed heavily. It was bad enough that she couldn't concentrate for all of the noise, now that blazing ball in the sky was deliberately trying to burn out her retinas. Capturing the tip of her hat she pulled it down lower in an effort to hide her face from the sun's prying eye. That was enough to fix that problem, now if only she had a pair of ear plugs to silence that high pitched droning._

_"Can't you damn bugs just shut the hell up for five blessed seconds?" she yelled then quickly covered her mouth and checked her surroundings to make sure no one had heard her. That wasn't very becoming language of the mayor's daughter. Not like she hadn't heard that before. Townspeople clicking their tongues and shaking their heads. To be honest she didn't care what they thought about her. But she loved her father, so she tried her best to keep up the appearance of what they thought she should be. He had enough to worry about._

_Luckily no one was around to catch her colorful remarks except for the stoic trees, the rolling grass, those damned lovelorn cicadas...and Cloud. The corners of her mouth stretched upward as she saw him beneath the tree line. Yes. Always Cloud. Always close, but never too close. Stubborn, resilient Cloud told by a hundred different people to stay a hundred yards away from his own neighbor. He didn't. And she was glad. It never made any sense to her anyway. _

_It did cost him, however. He was always berated by lectures and jeering from the other kids and adults alike. He came home with eyes blackened and lip busted when it became too much and he had to release his anger on some kid that pushed his last button with a word or a look. She wanted to yell, wanted to defend him, wanted to wipe the dirt and the blood from his face. But she was faced with her own scoldings and reprimands. Words alien to her vocabulary were thrown at her in an attempt to ward her away from him. Words like miscreant, ruffian, ingrate...stalker. Nothing that ever suited the bright eyed and shy boy from next door. All because of something she couldn't remember. An accident that left a crack in her skull and a permanent hole in her memory._

_But across the chasm there was Cloud. The one constant thing in her life. The first set of eyes she focused on when she woke after the accident, eyes that were watching her silently through the window to her room. Since then she knew, regardless of what anyone else said, he wasn't to blame for what happened. He was a little strange perhaps, but it seemed to make him all the more endearing to her. She kept her distance because that was what was expected of her. It was the easiest way to keep from disappointing her father, and to keep Cloud from getting hurt. Though on those quiet evenings outside their bedroom windows, Tifa had tried talking to him. Tried getting him to fill in the gaps of her fractured anamnesis. But he wouldn't speak of it. He'd barely speak at all. So their odd relationship went, and strangely enough she found solace in his quiet and distant company. It was like she had her own personal cloud pulled down from the sky. Something serene and comforting but never quite close enough to touch._

_She shook her head. Daydreaming wasn't going to make a mountain guide out of her. Though judging by the dogeared yellow pages of the book in her lap, it didn't seem that she was any closer studying this old tome. Must have been a thousand updates to this book already, but like everything else in Nibelheim, it remained lost to time and the modernization of the world. The girl could only hope that life saving techniques hadn't changed all that much in the last century or so._

_"Chapter 2...after asking the person if he/she is okay and receiving no response...then duh, they're probably not okay," she ad-libbed, trying to keep herself amused. "Position victim so they are lying flat of their back on a hard surface. Tilt victim's head back and lift chin to open airway. Listen for any sign of breathing. See diagram 1-A, Section B, page 101."_

_Tifa flipped towards the back of the book only to find the diagrams were missing. Torn out by someone who obviously just wanted to look at the pictures instead of reading the blasted instructions. She slammed the book down on the ground and threw her hands up in the air in frustration. Why the hell should she even try?_

_It was then that her attention came back to Cloud. She rubbed her damp brow with a forearm and tilted her hat upward for a better view of the scene in front of her. He was parrying and thrusting with a stick held firmly in his hand like it was the finest sword ever crafted. Perspiration glistened on his shirtless back as his suspenders flapped uselessly unarmed on the sides of his trousers. Tifa giggled as he leaped into the air and drove it into the ground with a wild whoop of triumph. No doubt he had just vanquished his foe. This was further apparent as he tucked an arm to his abdomen and bowed low in salute to the invisible menace. An idea suddenly struck and before she could consider it further, she called out to him._

_"Hey Cloud!"_

_The boy continued on unawares, retrieving his "sword" for his next opponent. The bugs were keeping her voice from reaching him. She tried again._

_"Cloud!!"_

_He turned suddenly and their eyes locked. And that's when she remembered how painfully shy she was when it came to that boy. She swallowed hard, gathered her nerve and continued. _

_"Come over here!"_

_Cloud cupped an ear with his hand. "What!?"_

_"Here!" she yelled and made beckoning motions with her hands. "Come here!"_

_He looked around, clearly puzzled, then pointed to himself. "Me?"_

_"No, the other dragon slayer behind you!" She laughed and swore she could feel the heat radiating from the fiery blush crawling up his neck as he looked away from her. Cloud scuffed a foot against the ground and shoved his hands in his pockets, clearly mortified to discover that she had been watching him. _

_Tifa began to wonder if she had said the wrong thing. It wasn't her intention to embarrass him. Her lips were forming an apology when she saw him pull a handkerchief from his back pocket and wipe the sweat from his face. He returned the cloth and began the trek up the hill towards her. _

_She fidgeted nervously, heat flushing her own cheeks now as she picked this point to rethink her idea. Cloud was going to think she was a lunatic. Oh gee Tifa is that what you want to do with your life? Guide people up the treacherous old mountain? Yeah that's a booming market, considering there's been what? Five tourists so far this year? _

_You're an idiot, Lockhart._

_"Hey Tifa."_

_She looked up to find that he'd closed the distance far too quickly for her to lose her nerve and to tell him to never mind. So she offered her best smile and the most eloquent greeting in her repertoire._

_"Hey Cloud."_

_Their eyes met again briefly before both of them looked away, still trapped behind barriers that neither of them could lower. There was much shuffling and fidgeting and clearing of throats before Cloud finally spoke up._

_"You...um...wanted to see me?"_

_His voice cracked and she found it adorable. Even though he was older, he still remained shorter than the other boys in the village. However, puberty did decide to strike his vocal cords and deliver his words in ever changing high and low pitches. As if he wasn't ridiculed enough._

_"Cloud...I need a dummy." Well that didn't come out right at all. Brilliant choice of words. The look he gave her said as much and she had to grab his hand to keep him from walking off. "Wait...wait...that's not what I meant!" Tifa took a deep breath to just get everything out in one go before her brain shutdown completely._

_"I'm studying to be a mountain guide. I know it sounds crazy, but papa thinks that tourism will pick up after they use the money Shinra donated for renovations. I'll be old enough in a couple of years to take the course. But before I can register I have to be certified in CPR and first aid. You know, in case the altitude causes some old rich guy to keel over with a heart attack. So I picked this book out of the library, but someone has torn out all of the illustrations in the back. And well, I'm a visual person...so...yeah...can you help me?"_

_There it was. All out. She breathed in, somewhat relieved but mostly humiliated. Cloud for his part just stood there with his head tilted slightly while staring at her. Lazuline irises went in and out of existence as he blinked a couple of times._

_"You think it's stupid don't you?" she winced._

_"No." he answered quickly, much to her surprise._

_"Really?"_

_"It's not stupid at all."_

_"You'll help me then?" Her voice became hopeful._

_"Um..." Cloud muttered as he glanced around them, scanning the expanse of the horizon. "I don't know if that's such a good idea."_

_"Town hall meeting," Tifa replied simply. "Papa will be there all afternoon."_

_He put a hand to his chin and bowed his head as if to ponder his decision further._

_"Along with pretty much everyone else in town."_

_"Well...okay."_

_The young girl clapped her hands excitedly. "Thanks Cloud!"_

_"What do you want me to do?"_

_"Just lie down."_

_He plopped unceremoniously on the ground a good two feet away from her, the dry grass rustling beneath his weight._

_"Ok."_

_"Cloud?"_

_"What?"_

_"You need to be a little closer than that."_

_"...Oh."_

_Tifa scooted from her position as he rolled a full turn towards her. There was a stark look of terror adorning his face as he crossed the invisible threshold of the border he'd created for himself. She gave him a reassuring smile even as the butterflies flipped and fluttered wildly in her stomach._

_"You know I won't hurt you, right?"_

_"I know."_

_"Alright, all you have to do is just lie there and play dead." The boy nodded and closed his eyes._

_She flipped open the book and glanced through the steps again. "First, I'm supposed to check and see if you're unconscious." Grabbing his shoulders she gave him a light shake. "Cloud! Can you hear me? Are you okay?"_

_"Um...yes?" He cracked open an eye._

_"No, no you're not supposed to answer. Dead, remember?"_

_"Sorry."_

_Delicately she placed a hand to his forehead pressing upward to tilt his head back while nimble fingers aviated beneath his chin. He complies, even though his face has reddened a million shades deeper from the soft touch. Reading the next line she steeled her nerves to lean precariously close to his face, putting her head next to his. His voice penetrated the shell of her ear with an anxious heat as he whispered nervously, "What are you doing now?"_

_She giggled and rubbed her ear from the tickling sensation. "I was checking to see if you were breathing."_

_"Oh." he paused, eyes still shut tightly. "You want me to hold my breath?"_

_"No," Tifa grinned at his dedication. "We'll just use our imaginations, okay?"_

_"I could do it."_

_"I know you could. But you're doing fine Cloud, this is a really big help."_

_"Okay."_

_"Let's see...your supposed to give chest compressions to keep the blood moving through the victim. 30 chest compressions for every two breaths which equals 100 per minute. Place the heel of one hand on the center of the victim's chest and rest the other hand on top of it." She repositioned herself on her knees so that she was adjacent to his body and followed through the instructions. He immediately stiffened and sucked in air. She locked her arms and settled her weight on top of him. She made it to the count of "One." Pushing her hands down carefully so as not to hurt him._

_And stopped._

_Forgetting herself and everything else for a moment,she stared at her hands splayed across the slick skin of his chest. She could feel his heart kicking wildly beneath her palm like a snared rabbit trying to break free, struggling and writhing in its ivory cage. The thought made her struggle to swallow her own heart which she was certain had laced up a pair of hiking boots to ascend the expanse of her throat, yodeling the entire way. The droning buzz of the cicadas reached its apex amidst the blood drumming frantically through her ears. Her fingers tingled. There was something foreign and ill-defined by the contact that was now between them. They had crossed yet another boundary in the span of a few minutes. It was new and exhilarating, beautiful...and forbidden._

_Tifa let out the breath she had inadvertently been holding, shaking her head to awaken her temporary paralysis. She looked down at Cloud, silently wondering if he had felt any of these strange emotions surging through him. His eyes were clamped tighter and she realized from the lack of movement that the breath he had hitched was still trapped inside._

_"Cloud..."_

_"Breathe!"_

_She smacked his cheek lightly and he complied to her request, the rush of air from his lungs hitting her in the face before he gasped sharply. "You okay?"_

_"...Yeah." His voice shook as he licked his lips hesitantly._

_"I'm sorry Cloud. Maybe...maybe we should stop."_

_"No." He opened his eyes to look at her._

_"You want to learn this right? You shouldn't quit. Somebody's life may depend on it."_

_"But..."_

_"Does the book tell you to stop?"_

_She glanced at the contents. "No. Just says to keep going until help arrives." Her eyes narrowed at the text. "What if there's no one coming? I mean up there its unlikely anyone could get there in time. Its not like there are any communication signals on the mountain."_

_He put his hands behind his head and looked towards the sky. "Well...I guess you don't quit then. Not until you're sure."_

_"Sure of what?"_

_"You know...that...you've done all you can do...and they're just...gone."_

_Tifa considered his words and smiled. "That makes sense."_

_"It does?" He rolled his head on his hands to give her a dumbfounded expression. "Really?" He wasn't used to people agreeing with him._

_She giggled. " Yes, really."_

_They spent the remains of the afternoon looking through the book together. Going through every procedure step by step, with Cloud providing his living illustrations for each one. They laughed and talked as little by little the walls between them crumbled and they became more comfortable. By the time a figure strolled over the hill, they were a breath apart grinning timidly at each other with Tifa's fingers latched onto his nose. The brim of her hat shading his face from the burning sun. She hovered over him as they hesitated on completing the course on mouth to mouth resuscitation. The decision was made for them by a shock of red hair that appeared over her shoulder._

_"Great goddess Minerva! What the hell are you doing to that poor Cloud kid, Tifa?" Johnny yelled at the top of his lungs._

_Tifa screamed and lost her balance. She fell on top of the blonde before flailing and scrambling off of him in a fury of movements. The color drained from her face as she turned towards the intruder. _

_"Johnny!"_

_Cloud meanwhile bolted up from the ground as if he'd been shot. The other boy threw his head back and laughed at the spectacle. "You two should see the looks on your faces!" he guffawed, putting his hands on his hips. "You'd think a meteor just came screaming out of the sky and landed in your laps!"_

_The boy and girl on the ground shared a nervous glance at each other._

_Johnny's face suddenly turned somber. "But seriously...what are you guys doing?"_

_"Nothing!" Tifa defended. "Cloud was just helping me, that's all."_

_"Helping you? Well I might be a little backwards, but it didn't look like he was carrying your books or getting your cat out of a tree."_

_"What's going on Johnny?" Another boy crested the hill to join his comrade._

_"That's what I'm trying to find out," the redhead responded._

_The other boy looked at the scene in front of them and stiffened. "Strife..."_

_Cloud's eyes narrowed. "Sorrowitz."_

_"Did he touch you Tifa?" He pointed furiously at the blonde. "I swear if you've laid a finger on her you little punk, I'm gonna feed you to the wolves."_

_"How bout I black your other eye?" the older boy countered coolly, popping the knuckles on his right hand._

_"Care to try farm boy?"_

_"Stop it! No one is blacking anyone's eye!" the young girl interjected. "Kyle, Cloud wasn't doing anything wrong...I asked him to help me."_

_"Which brings me back to my question." Johnny said. "It looked to me like you were either trying to suffocate the guy...or kiss him."_

_"What?" Kyle stammered._

_"I wasn't kissing him!"_

_"Now Tifa," the redhead continued. "I told you that when you were ready for your first kiss, I would be more than happy to oblige." He put a fist to his chest and bowed nobly._

_She rolled her eyes. "Keep dreaming Johnny." Picking the book up off the grass she tossed it in their direction. "Look. I'm studying to be a mountain guide. Before you can sign up for the course you have to be certified in CPR. Cloud was helping me learn the steps. Someone thought it would be funny to tear out all of the diagrams in the back."_

_"Dude." Kyle peered over Johnny's shoulder. "Is that the book with all the drawings of the naked chick in_ it?"

_The other boy sighed forlornly as he flipped to the back of the book._ "_It was...till some insensitive pervert decided to steal her away for himself!" He slammed it shut. "I'll bet it was Ackerman! Wait till I get my hands on him! This book is for public viewing!"_

_Tifa rubbed the bridge of her nose in exasperation._ _"Did you guys have a purpose in coming out here?"_

_"Whoa, wait," Johnny said as the realization of her words hit him. "Did you just say you wanted to be a mountain guide?"_

_"....Yes?"_

_The bout of laughter from the younger boys made Cloud stir from his silence. He stood up and started to walk towards them, but was stopped short when he felt her grab the hem of his pants._

_"That's the funniest thing I've heard in a while!" Johnny wiped at his eyes. "That was a joke right? For the love of Gaia please tell me that was a joke?"_

_"...It wasn't."_

_"Tifa...I can see you doing a lot of things around here...but guiding people up the mountain ain't one of them. You actually think the mayor will let his little princess do anything around here besides smile pretty and entertain his guests?"_

_"It's not his life," she replied sullenly. "It's mine."_

_"Besides, I can see you going up there, finding something nasty, and here you'd come screaming for daddy, racing down the slope with some monster on your heels."_

_Tifa stuck her tongue out at the boy._

_"And anyway, we all know what happened the last time you tried to go up there." The other boy looked pointedly at Cloud._

_"No we don't Kyle!" she shouted. "It was an accident!"_

_"Take back what you said." Cloud muttered lowly._

_"What's that farm boy?"_

_"Take back what you said about Tifa."_

_"Cloud...don't. It's okay."_

_"Whoa now, lets put down the weapons you two." Johnny held up his hands. "There's no need for violence."_

_"Are you guys finished? Can you go away now?" The girl pleaded._

_"If that is your wish, your highness." He bowed._

_"Oh for god's sake will you stop that?"_

_"Fine, fine." Johnny grabbed his friend by the shirt collar and started to drag him away. He was still burning holes into Cloud with his eyes._

_"Johnny?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"You won't say anything...will you?"_

"_Babe, you know my lips are always puckered for you...I mean sealed." He waved fondly while Kyle made a gesture of pointing two fingers to his eyes and then one finger back at Cloud. She sighed deeply as they disappeared over the crest of the hill._

_"They're right you know," Tifa said softly. "I don't know why I ever thought I could do this."_

_"Don't give up, Tifa."_

_She looked at him as he sat back down beside her. He balanced his elbows on his knees and gave her a small smile. "Don't listen to them. You can do anything you want, long as you keep trying."_

_He turned his attention down the rolling field towards the forest. "You know the cicadas have to wait 17 years underground to get their one chance to find a mate before they die. And I'm sure you've noticed, they don't give up."_

_The boy locked eyes with her again. "You remind me of the cicadas."_

_Tifa wasn't sure how to take that exactly. She wasn't too fond of being compared to those big, red eyed noisy bugs. They revolted her. But she was game, so she decided to bite._

_"How's that?"_

_"You keep going, even when the world is telling you to stop," he stated simply, shrugging his shoulders._

_"Cloud...," she started._

_"I know you could save me if you had to, I don't doubt that for a second. Because you don't quit. I've never seen you give up on anything."_

_She smiled widely at him as the tears pin pricked her eyes. The evening bells began chiming in the distance heralding the call for the villagers to return. Cloud stood up and brushed the grass from his body. "I'd better get going. Mom's gonna wonder where I am."_

_"Thank you Cloud. For helping me, believing in me...for everything." She turned away shyly._

_He blushed again and rubbed the back of his neck. "You're welcome." He turned to walk away, jutting his arms through his suspenders he hoisted them up onto his shoulders._

_"Bye Cloud."_

_"Bye Tifa."_

_She watched him stride up towards Nibelheim. Noticing there was a slight bounce and an unseen confidence in his step. After a few feet he stopped and turned around, the smile still plastered on his face._

_"Tifa?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"Thank you."_

_She chuckled. "For what?"_

_"For saving me."_

_Her face faltered as he turned back and climbed further towards Nibelheim. The sun casting an orange glow to his unruly locks of hair. "You don't quit, right Tifa?" He yelled over his shoulder, his voice rising above the singing insects. Tifa nodded before he disappeared over the hill into the distance._

_"That's right Cloud," she whispered."You don't quit."_


End file.
